Over the last few months, Instagram has been working to address a key problem which not all users agree is an actual issue: The re-sharing of feed posts to Instagram Stories.
Many, many people and brands do this, posting an update to the main feed, then giving it a little extra juice by adding the same image as a Story as well. It happens so often that you're probably used to it - but Instagram says that a lot of users don't like this sort of re-sharing, as the duplication between the two surfaces can be a little too much.
Back in January, Instagram took its first steps to address this, by stopping some users from re-sharing feed posts to Stories entirely, which was met with mixed response.
Instagram softened its approach with another new test in March, which saw the addition of labels on Stories posts that had been re-posted from a users' main feed.
And it seems that Instagram is still working on the best solution - this week, app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi discovered this new test, which would see the addition of a new 'Reshare' sticker in Instagram Stories that would facilitate the re-sharing of feed posts.
Instagram's been working on the 'Reshare' sticker over the past few weeks, with Paluzzi first noting it in the app's code early last month.
How your feed post would then subsequently be displayed within your Story is not clear, but the process will essentially aim to make it clearer that it is a re-shared feed post, as opposed to an original Story. Which could act as something of a disincentive for people to re-share their feed updates - because as noted, Instagram really doesn't want users doing that.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently noted exactly this - in one of his most recent Friday Q and A sessions, Mosseri posted this response.
It's hard to tell how many users are actually annoyed by this, but clearly Instagram itself sees it as a problem. Which could see it look to further restrict such sharing moving forward, or reducing the reach of Stories that do as a result (maybe by sliding them down the order with which they're displayed in the app).
Either way, Instagram's clearly still working to address this, and that could be a consideration for your Instagram strategy moving forward, depending on how you see it.
In addition to this, Paluzzi has also noted that Instagram is working on a new scheduling option for IG Live broadcasts.
That could be a good way to enhance engagement with your IG Live broadcasts, and with Instagram also recently adding audio-only live-streams, in order to tap into the Clubhouse 'audio social' trend, that could make this a more valuable consideration in your broader platform strategy.
Some interesting experiments to note either way.
